GCAM is the GNU Computer Aided Manufacturing open source package. It currently supports any 3-Axis Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) mill such as the Taig or Sherline. GCAM consists of a simple interface for making bolt holes, drill holes, and sketches, which after extruded, provide the cutting paths for the selected end mill. GCAM also supports RS274X (Gerber) and Excellon drill files for circuit board milling. Once a design is complete one can export the corresponding G-Code to the appropriate CNC driver of choice such as TurboCNC for DOS or EMC for Linux. GCAM recently entered a stable release mode so please use the Discussion Forum to post any questions and concerns. GCAM is written entirely in C and consists of about 16k lines of code. The GCAM source code can be downloaded from the Files page. Please post all feature requests under Bugzilla.
http://vts.bc.ca/pics3/gcam.jpg

http://gcam.js.cx/index.php/Main_Page

Go here to download Windows version:

http://gcam.js.cx/index.php/Files

S_J_H

10-30-2007, 08:19 AM

here is another VERY good one that the author is allowing free use-
http://www.brusselsprout.org/CAMBAM/

Steve

John Stevenson

10-30-2007, 09:03 AM

Steve,
Yes this program is well worth a mention as it's a work in progress. The forum reflects the amount of work that has gone into this.

I recently met Andy Payne, owner and head programmer of Cambam at a recent show.

His idea is to supply a free program for all to use and a paid upgrade to a professional version later.

.

lazlo

10-30-2007, 09:37 AM

Found this:

http://gcam.js.cx/index.php/Main_Page

It doesn't import DXF files, which makes it pretty useless for CAD/CAM/CNC.

It looks like it's a quick-and-dirty program to generate G-Code from a simple sketch interface.

lazlo

10-30-2007, 09:38 AM

here is another VERY good one that the author is allowing free use-
http://www.brusselsprout.org/CAMBAM/

Now that looks really interesting Steve -- thanks!

MickeyD

10-30-2007, 10:24 AM

I met Andy Payne from Cam Bam at the Austin Maker Faire and was very impressed with his software. The documentation was good and he is haveing fun with his software. If you have a small cnc it is worth checking out.

Evan

10-30-2007, 01:56 PM

It doesn't import DXF files, which makes it pretty useless for CAD/CAM/CNC.

It appears to do a lot of the things that I want to do that really don't require a CAD design.

jrl

10-30-2007, 04:20 PM

OOPS! I initially quoted the wrong post.

jrl

10-30-2007, 04:26 PM

It doesn't import DXF files, which makes it pretty useless for CAD/CAM/CNC.

While AutoCAD is by far the most popular professional CAD program, it is by no means the only or even the best. I know engineers at the state department of transportation who would scream bloody murder if they had to switch to AutoCAD from their present multi-kilobuck per seat per year system.

I've heard there are other higher-end systems the guys in the aircraft business prefer too. . .

lazlo

10-30-2007, 04:33 PM

While AutoCAD is by far the most popular professional CAD program, it is by no means the only or even the best.

DXF doesn't mean AutoCAD anymore :) it's become the defactor CAD interchange format. The program that Evan posted can't import any CAD format. It has a sketch interface, like Microsoft Paint, and generates G-Code from the sketch.

CamBam, that Steve posted, imports DXF files, so you can generate a model with AutoCAD, TurboCAD, Alibre, whatever, and generate G-Code for MACH 3.

John Stevenson

10-30-2007, 05:15 PM

http://gcam.js.cx/index.php/Files

Why do these these Wiki pages give me the screaming hab-dabs, that full of irrelevant information you can't find fück all.

Is it me or do they remind anyone else of VFD manuals :eek:

.

lazlo

10-30-2007, 05:52 PM

[URL="http://gcam.js.cx/index.php/Files"]Why do these these Wiki pages give me the screaming hab-dabs, that full of irrelevant information you can't find fück all.

He's a graduate student writing Gcam for fun, so I wouldn't expect much in the way of documentation :)

Wiki pages have gotten trendy -- there are dorks where I work (microprocessor designers) who insist on publishing documentation to Wiki pages, but they also write Blogs that no one reads ;)

Cool trick on the umlaut 'u' John!

John Stevenson

10-30-2007, 06:09 PM

He's a graduate student writing Gcam for fun, so I wouldn't expect much in the way of documentation :)

Wiki pages have gotten trendy -- there are dorks where I work (microprocessor designers) who insist on publishing documentation to Wiki pages, but they also write Blogs that no one reads ;)

Cool trick on the umlaut 'u' John!

I really hate them, the idea of documentation is to be helpful, at one time they were called help files.
You could even print them out.

Now we have these Wiki's with pages, sub pargraphs, tunnels and whatever nested 17,876 deep [ approx] and no way of printing these out unless you are totally anally retentive.